Value creation with aesthetic capital

Many social entrepreneurs offer new models of sustainable change by blending, generating or even renewing the use of four kinds of capital to create social value: financial capital (use of [new forms of] money), social capital (building human relationships, trust, networks and cooperation), environmental capital (use of natural resources) and aesthetical capital (use of design, art, music, architecture etc).

The Danish art company Superflex is one example. They have designed a commercial brand – Guaraná Power – for local farming co-operatives in the Brazilian Amazon to create a counter economic position that empowers farmers of guaraná (small dark red berries containing caffeine) from corporate monopoly on guarana soft drinks from multinational soft drink companies.

The farmers are now paid five times the former market price, and all earnings from Guaraná Power benefit the local guraná farmers, who use the surplus to improve their local community. Superflex is currently relaunching the product in an organic version.

Read more about Superflex and Guaraná Power here, or follow them on Facebook.